Some Helpfull Tips

• Use Dawn or another dish washing liquid to clean your brushes.  I  have used it on my brushes since I was in high school thanks to my old painting teacher Ms. Belmont.  Dawn is a degreaser so it works great at cleaning out oils especially and acrylics.  This works great for those big paint brushes and rollers used around the house to paint ceilings, walls, etc. This is a much cheaper and more environmentally safe way to clean up!
• Got paint on you? Kiss it off!  I have not gotten a stain that I have not been able to get out with this remover.  It is called Kiss Off and it comes in a stick similar to chap stick but larger.  It is great fro getting out paint.  I have even gotten several day old dry oil paint off before using it.
• You do not need that little jar of turpentine or other solvents for your brushes.  While items like Turpanoid and Gamasol have made it much safer for artists to use, a plain old jar of watter will do the same thing.  Water will keep your brushes from drying out and will dissolve the paint some.  Water is great at breaking down matter because of the same of the molecule.  Think about it: water carved out the Grand Canyon. I picked this up in Collage from one of my painting teachers the first day of painting class and never looked back! Thanks Andrew!
• One of twice a year I will soak my paint brushes in some Brush Cleaner & Restorer It almost instantly breaks down any dried up oil or acrylic paint.  The instrustons say a couple hours but I usually leave them in over night or for a day or so and occasionally move them around.  This really helps to restore the flexibility of your brushes.  It will not get off every spec of paint but it helps a bunch.  Watch that you do not over fill the jar though because it will eat away at the paint on the brush handle.
• You can save time, get more even coats, and waste less gesso if you do not use a brush but a drywall scraper instead.  You will also get wider stokes, unless you are already using a six inch brush.  excess gesso can be scraped back into the container and clean up is much easier than cleaning out a big brush.  I have a little cheep six inch plastic one that cost be about three dollars at the hardware store but there are also metal ones too.  The plastic ones will probably slowly widdle down. Another tip from Andrew.